RCMP bust illegal B.C. cannabis lab

Cannabis may now be legal in Canada but altering the plant using chemicals to make oil is not.

Harvard Place off Airport Road in Chilliwack. (GoogleMaps)

A male in his 20s is facing charges after approximately 250 pounds of dried marijuana and 30 pounds of marijuana resin/oil were seized in a warehouse in Chilliwack on Wednesday.

A business owner in a neigbhouring unit in the commercial complex on the cul-de-sac off Airport Road told The Progress he watched all day as police wearing hazmat suits pulled out barrels from the unit across the parking lot from him.

On Nov. 14, members of the Chilliwack RCMP Drug Section of the Upper Fraser Valley Regional Detachment (UFVRD) Crime Reduction Unit, with the assistance of the “E” Division Clan Lab Enforcement and Response Team (CLEAR) executed a search warrant under Section 87 of the Cannabis Act at the warehouse on Harvard Place.

Police say a male in his 20s was arrested at that location for illegal production using chemicals to alter cannabis under Section 12(1) of the country’s new Cannabis Act.

Police located and seized extraction equipment, butane, propane, along with the cannabis and oil.

“The use of these volatile chemicals pose a significant risk to the neighbouring tenants of this warehouse,” said Supt. Bryon Massie, Officer in Charge of the Upper Fraser Valley Regional Detachment. “The officers of the UFVRD will continue to work within new and existing legislation to ensure the safety of our community.”